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DreamPod

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 15, 2008
1,265
188
Got my white Magic Keyboard, and I really like how it looks! ...I was thinking though that mine might be busted, the backlight wasn't working at all, and the backlight brightness slider in settings wouldn't even move. Turns out it really wants a dark room to enable the backlight - even though the lights are off in my room, I had to cover up the ambient sensor with my hand to light up the keys (and make the brightness slider function).

It makes sense, the black letters on white are easy to see in darker situations than the white letters on black keys, and white light on white key could actually make the keys *harder* to read. But still, Apple should make that more clear, so other people don't think something is wrong and (like me) try and figure out how to make them work. I also wish Apple would let us disable the auto-brightness, like we can with the screen brightness, but I know that's never going to happen.
 
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Also just found out that you can’t manually control the keyboard backlight at all. The keyboard brightness toggle does not move.

Toggling auto-brightness off in accessibility settings makes no difference.
 
Also just found out that you can’t manually control the keyboard backlight at all. The keyboard brightness toggle does not move.

Toggling auto-brightness off in accessibility settings makes no difference.
It will move, but only while the keyboard is lit, so you need to adjust it in a very dark room, or with your hand covering up the iPad light sensor.
 
It will move, but only while the keyboard is lit, so you need to adjust it in a very dark room, or with your hand covering up the iPad light sensor.
Here’s a video of a guy adjusting it, it looks to be exactly the same as the black. He is using, I believe a 2020 iPad Pro. If there is an issue, I haven’t seen any other reports of such, I would imagine a quick ios update will take care of it.
 
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Any interaction with the keyboard or the iPad screen will illuminate the backlighting. But I have set mine fairly low and see very little battery impact. After about 3 seconds or so of no interaction such as watching a video or just reading text the backlighting turns off.

I’ve compared my MKB to the Smart Keyboard Folio and with similar usage I saw no real difference in battery usage but again I keep the backlighting low.
 
Here’s a video of a guy adjusting it, it looks to be exactly the same as the black. He is using, I believe a 2020 iPad Pro. If there is an issue, I haven’t seen any other reports of such, I would imagine a quick ios update will take care of it.
This experience does not match my own experience with the 11” version. I have a black 11” Magic keyboard and recently purchased the new white version. When I am in a room thats slightly dimmed lighting, connecting my new iPad Pro (with latest OS) to my black magic keyboard immediately lights up the keys. When I swap out the Black keyboard for the white version - in exactly the same position and same room - the backlight does not activate and the brightness slider is greyed out. If I go into a VERY dark room, it will eventually light up.

I took the keyboard to my local apple store, as well as my iPad and original black keyboard, and showed the tech guys there the issue. They tested a few white and black keyboards on display and found exactly the same issue.

Net-net, if the white magic keyboard is the first keyboard you‘ve had, you’ll likely be very happy. It’s a great keyboard, beautiful action, the trackpad is awesome and it WILL light up under certain dark conditions. However, if like me, you already own the black magic keyboard, the reduced sensitivity to ambient lighting between the two keyboards will drive you nuts. I’m returning mine, and the apple guys said they were going to report this as an identified fault.

I mentioned that this is for the 11” version, because that video, which shows a mirrored experience between the white and black magic keyboards, appears to be the 12.9”, so maybe that is a factor.
 
This experience does not match my own experience with the 11” version. I have a black 11” Magic keyboard and recently purchased the new white version. When I am in a room thats slightly dimmed lighting, connecting my new iPad Pro (with latest OS) to my black magic keyboard immediately lights up the keys. When I swap out the Black keyboard for the white version - in exactly the same position and same room - the backlight does not activate and the brightness slider is greyed out. If I go into a VERY dark room, it will eventually light up.

I took the keyboard to my local apple store, as well as my iPad and original black keyboard, and showed the tech guys there the issue. They tested a few white and black keyboards on display and found exactly the same issue.

Net-net, if the white magic keyboard is the first keyboard you‘ve had, you’ll likely be very happy. It’s a great keyboard, beautiful action, the trackpad is awesome and it WILL light up under certain dark conditions. However, if like me, you already own the black magic keyboard, the reduced sensitivity to ambient lighting between the two keyboards will drive you nuts. I’m returning mine, and the apple guys said they were going to report this as an identified fault.

I mentioned that this is for the 11” version, because that video, which shows a mirrored experience between the white and black magic keyboards, appears to be the 12.9”, so maybe that is a factor.
I have the same experience as you…..
 
I have the same experience as you…..
I mentioned that this is for the 11” version, because that video, which shows a mirrored experience between the white and black magic keyboards, appears to be the 12.9”, so maybe that is a factor.
Just speculating here. I believe the keyboard backlighting is controlled by the iPad which will detect ambient lighting changes. Maybe something about the smaller size of the 11 keyboard and iPad results in more light being reflected off the white keyboard causing the software to “see” a brighter area surrounding it. The keyboard itself doesn’t have any software so there is no direct adjustment possible. Maybe Apple will have to issue an update where you can specify whether a black or white keyboard is in use so that the ambient light sensor can be reset or adjusted in some way.
 
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Having the same issue here. 11" ipad with white magic keyboard. Unable to manually adjust the keyboard brightness slider unless its very dark.
 
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